'Walking Dead' staggers to yet another record
Zombies rule. Again. Sunday's Season 3 premiere of AMC's "The Walking Dead" walked all over the records for those feuding "Hatfields & McCoys" and the staggering living of "Jersey Shore" -- and outperformed a bunch of other cable and broadcast hits -- with 10.9 million viewers at 9 p.m. and a further 4.3 million for the reruns at 10 p.m. and midnight.
'Walking Dead' staggers to yet another record
Ellen Gray, Daily News TV Critic
Zombies rule. Again.
Sunday's Season 3 premiere of AMC's "The Walking Dead" walked all over the records for those feuding "Hatfields & McCoys" and the staggering living of "Jersey Shore" -- and outperformed a bunch of other cable and broadcast hits -- with 10.9 million viewers at 9 p.m. and a further 4.3 million for the reruns at 10 p.m. and midnight.
That's "the biggest telecast for any drama series in basic cable history among all viewers," according to AMC. The series, which last season broke the cable record for viewers 18-49, apparently wasn't hurt by its ongoing dispute with the Dish satellite service, which no longer carries any of AMC's networks.
Or, for that matter, by its location on what's become one of the toughest nights on television.
Of particular interest to the network, which makes some of its money on ads: Some 7.3 million of the 10.9 million viewers at 9 were 18- to 49-year-olds, the people advertisers most often target. (After 50 or so, we're all the walking dead to Madison Avenue.)
Total viewer ratings were up 50 percent from last season's premiere and 52 percent in 18-49.
I have to say the season premier certainly turned things up a notch. I hope they’ve fixed their pacing issues for the remainder of the season! If you love or loathe zombies as much as I do, be sure to check out 20 of the Greatest Zombie Movies of All Time reviewed at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2011/05/top-10-zombie-movies-of-all-time-with.html with some really cool zombie artwork!— dregstudios- Amazing season premier. I hope the next 15 episodes are just as great.— Bruno Sammartino
- Loved the season premier but, just like the past seasons, annoyed at the ridiculously high amount of commercials. I realize it's a popular show, but it's obvious AMC is trying to exploit that popularity by basically turning an hour into 30 minutes of Walking Dead and 30 minutes of commercials. A commercial break every five minutes or less kills the flow , especially when things start heating up (shame when ANY action at all is a segue to a commercial break in a few seconds...) THANK GOODNESS for DVR. I would love to watch it live but not until AMC cools down a bit on the commercials.— moose_man
- It was a 44 minute episode, which is on part with any other 1 hour or 30 minute show (30 minutes shows have 22 minutes of screen time). Looks like your complaining for the sake of complaing. If it was 2 minutes of commercials I'm sure you'd say "Why do they have 2 minutes of commercials". Sorry they have to sell ads to make money. Some people are never happy.
Great episode and looks to be shaping up to be a phenomenal season. - LOVE this show! The makeup is amazing! I watched Talking Dead for the first time Sunday night, and that was pretty good, too. I was watching one of the '80's zombie movies recently (Dawn of the Dead???) and those zombies were running and talking! I like the WD ones better...you know, because they're more realistic. :-P— uncle meat
This should be an awesome season!- This should be an awesome season!
